Del Toro climbs the Crimson Peak

It’s a long running joke: Another day, and yet another Guillermo Del Toro project gets set up.

Del Toro knows it’s always good to have a lot of balls in the air, because things fall apart in Hollywood all the time. He’s had a number of potential movies he’s wanted to make for a long time, including his long time dream project At the Mountains of Madness, remakes of Frankenstein and Pinocchio, and many, many more.

First Del Toro has Pacific Rim, his big robotic sci-fi epic, which hits theaters on July 12, 2013, and it’s Del Toro’s first film since Hellboy II. Now according to Collider and The Hollywood Reporter, Del Toro’s next film post-Pacific Rim will be Crimson Peak, which is actually a ghost story of sorts. Collider confirms that Del Toro sold it to Universal as a spec script several years ago. (Essentially, a spec script is a screenplay you write without a major studio assignment that you then show around and then hopefully sell).

Del Toro has tried desperately to make At the Mountains of Madness at Universal as well, but the studio finally passed on it, as they did with the adaptation of The Dark Tower, which Ron Howard was going to direct. Crimson Peak is going to be produced through Legendary Pictures, who also produced the Christopher Nolan Batman films, as well as the upcoming reboot of Godzilla.

As Del Toro told Collider, Crimson Peak is going to be a classic haunted house story, much like the sixties classic The Haunting. "Crimson Peak is a very set-oriented, classic but at the same time modern take on the ghost story," Del Toro said. "It will allow me to play with the conventions of the genre I know and love, and at the same time subvert the old rules."

Del Toro will also dive into voice recording for Pinocchio, then he’ll direct the pilot for the horror series The Strain, which will air on the FX network. Production for Crimson Peak will hopefully start in 2014, and Del Toro is also hopeful Legendary will make Mountains of Madness some day as well. Del Toro said that the company loves the project, "and my hope is down the line we can do it."